The SSSSSSSS-level Mad Dragon is released from prison!

The morning light shone obliquely through the large hole that had been smashed open in the cave ceiling, illuminating Shen Suxin's face.

Her eyelashes fluttered twice, and she opened her eyes.

Contrary to expectations of weakness, she felt as light as a feather. She raised her hand, and the faint bluish-purple veins on her palm had disappeared, replaced by a soft, warm sheen.

Shen Suxin sat up and stared blankly at Jiang Chen, who was leaning against the stone wall, emptying his cigarette pack.

"Awake?" Jiang Chen crushed the empty cigarette pack and casually tossed it into the pile of rubble in the corner. "How are you feeling?"

Shen Suxin clenched her fist.

The restless, volatile feeling of wanting to lose control and destroy everything vanished, replaced by an unprecedented sense of control. It was like a wild beast that had been caged suddenly becoming an obedient domestic dog.

"The poison gas... obeyed." She looked at Jiang Chen, her voice a little hoarse. "Did you do it?"

"I guess so." Jiang Chen stood up, brushing the dust off his trousers. "But don't get too excited. This is just a temporary balance. Your body is like a powder keg; the fuse may have been extinguished, but the gunpowder is still there."

Shen Suxin pursed her lips and remained silent.

"Next time you lose control of your emotions or have murderous intent, this barrel of gunpowder will explode even louder than this time." Jiang Chen walked to the cave entrance, his back to her. "Then, nothing will grow for miles around, and the tragedy of Zhao Family Village will be repeated."

Shen Suxin trembled and instinctively gripped the tattered clothes beneath her.

That scene from my childhood came back to me.

The chubby boy next door snatched her candied hawthorn. She only cried out in distress, and the chubby boy turned into a puddle of black water right in front of her. That was a nightmare she could never wash away for the rest of her life.

"Do you have a way?" Shen Suxin raised her head and stared at Jiang Chen's back.

"Yes." Jiang Chen turned around, looking down at her. "Stay by my side. I will help you clear the poison, and you will have to do my bidding. When the poison in my body is completely cleared, you will be able to live like a normal person."

This is a deal.

fair enough.

Shen Suxin got up from the ground, straightened her tattered coarse linen clothes, and stood half a step behind Jiang Chen.

"I'll go with you." Her voice was soft, but without the slightest hesitation. "As long as you don't hurt anyone else, I'll go anywhere."

Xiao Ruoye, who had been guarding the cave entrance, poked her head in at this moment.

She watched the man and woman reach an agreement, her expression somewhat complicated. This herb-gathering woman looked delicate and frail, but the burst of poison power she had just unleashed was more terrifying than a bomb.

"Um... Jiang Chen." Xiao Ruoye waved her phone, which was out of battery. "Now that he's awake, let's get out of here. The Jun family has sealed off the mountain; it's not safe here. Come back to the station with me. I have friends there; they won't dare to do anything reckless."

"The bureau?" Jiang Chen scoffed. "Your lousy bureau, can it stop even a dog from the Jun family?"

Xiao Ruoye choked, her face flushing red: "That's still better than running around in the wild! Besides, in your current state... you can't even use your true energy. What if you run into a tough opponent?"

She could tell that Jiang Chen was just a paper tiger.

The imposing aura was still there, but the suffocating sense of oppression was gone. With his meridians blocked and his true energy unable to be mobilized, he would be a sitting duck in a real fight.

"Let's go to your place." Jiang Chen ignored her concerns and made the decision directly.

"What?!" Xiao Ruoye almost jumped up, her voice rising eight octaves, "Go to my house? Do you think I'm not miserable enough?"

"The Xiao family of the capital, though fallen from grace, is still a local power in the southern suburbs." Jiang Chen didn't give her a chance to refuse, and started walking out. "The Jun family is searching the world for people with dragon aura. My current ghostly appearance is perfect for hiding in your Xiao family's hideout."

"No! Absolutely not!" Xiao Ruoye chased after him, blocking Jiang Chen's path. "You know that's the Xiao family of the capital! I ran away to Haicheng to become a policeman three years ago to escape an arranged marriage! If I go back now, it'll be like walking into a trap! My dad will definitely kidnap me and send me to an arranged marriage!"

"A marriage alliance?" Jiang Chen stopped and glanced at her. "Who is the other party?"

"What's it to you!" Xiao Ruoye gritted her teeth. "I'm not going back anyway. We can always play guerrilla warfare in the mountains."

"Just now, the search party was already three kilometers away." Jiang Chen pointed to the mountain ridge on the left. "They're all experts with internal strength or higher, and the leader is even a half-step Grandmaster. How long do you think we, the three of us who are old, weak, and disabled, can hide?"

Xiao Ruoye looked in the direction he pointed, and several birds were startled into flight from the woods.

Her expression changed.

"And you also need treatment," Jiang Chen added, delivering another blow. "Although your Geng Metal constitution is suppressed, it hasn't been eradicated. If you don't want to die on the way, lead the way."

Xiao Ruoye stared intently at Jiang Chen, her chest heaving violently.

After a long pause, she stomped her foot angrily and squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth: "Fine! I'll go! Don't blame me if my dad beats me out!"

……

Three hours later.

A military green jeep covered in mud bumped and jolted onto the asphalt road in the southern suburbs of the capital.

Xiao Ruoye "borrowed" the car from the roadside. The owner was a rich second-generation who went hunting in the mountains. He was so frightened by Jiang Chen's glance that he abandoned the car and ran away.

Jiang Chen sat in the back seat, toying with half of a dragon-shaped jade pendant in his hand.

The jade pendant was warm and smooth; held in my palm, I could faintly feel the pulse emanating from within. The closer this thing got to the capital, the stronger the reaction became.

"Someone is watching us."

Shen Suxin, who was sitting next to her, suddenly spoke. She didn't turn around, her eyes fixed on the poplar forest rushing past the car window, her fingers unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes.

Xiao Ruoye's grip on the steering wheel tightened, and she subconsciously glanced at the rearview mirror: "Where is it? I can't see it!"

As a veteran criminal investigator, she was quite adept at counter-surveillance, but all she saw in the rearview mirror was the dust that had been kicked up.

"At three o'clock, behind that old locust tree. And at ten o'clock, on top of that signal tower." Shen Suxin reported the locations quickly, her tone as calm as if she were counting wildflowers by the roadside. "His heart was beating fast, his breathing was heavy, and he had a... rusty smell."

Jiang Chen stuffed the jade pendant back into his pocket without even lifting his eyelids: "Don't worry about it, they're just a few flies. Once they're on the Xiao family's territory, they won't dare to make a move."

Shen Suxin's senses were enhanced by the poison, making her more acute than radar in detecting vital signs. This was one of the reasons Jiang Chen insisted on bringing her along.

Right now, he needs this kind of human radar.

As the car rounded a bend, a cluster of ancient buildings came into view.

With its red walls and green tiles, flying eaves and bracket sets, the Xiao family's wealth and influence are evident in the fact that they have acquired such a large plot of land in the southern suburbs of the capital, where land is incredibly valuable. However, the paint on the vermilion gate is peeling, and the stone lions at the entrance are covered with a layer of dust, giving off a sense of decay and decline.

"We're here." Xiao Ruoye parked the car a few dozen meters from the gate, took a deep breath, and said, "This is the Xiao family."

Her palms were sweaty.

Even after three years away, this feeling of oppression remains unchanged.

The three got out of the car. Jiang Chen's clothes had been tattered in the cave, and he was now wearing a spare tracksuit left in the car by the rich second-generation owner. It was a bit ill-fitting and loose.

Shen Suxin was still wearing the same patched coarse cloth clothes, carrying a bamboo basket on her back, looking like a village girl who had just arrived in the city.

Xiao Ruoye was slightly better off, but she was still covered in mud and her hair was a mess.

The three of them looked exactly like refugees fleeing famine.

Just as they reached the gate, two young men carrying long swords blocked their way.

The two men were wearing matching blue training uniforms with the character "Xiao" embroidered on their chests. They held their chins high and looked down at people.

"stop!"

The tall, thin man on the left held his sword sheath horizontally in front of him, sized Jiang Chen up and down, and curled his lip in disdain: "Where did this beggar come from? Don't you even open your eyes and see where you are? Is this a place for begging?"

The slightly overweight man on the right waved him away, yelling, "Go away, get out of here! The old man's in a bad mood today, don't cause trouble. If you dirty the floor tiles, you couldn't afford to pay for it even if you sold yourself!"

Xiao Ruoye's face darkened instantly.

Just as she was about to step forward and reveal her identity, Jiang Chen reached out and stopped her.

"It seems the threshold for your Xiao family is even higher than I imagined." Jiang Chen lit a cigarette he had taken from the car and squinted at the mottled golden nanmu plaque.

"Nonsense!" the tall, thin man scoffed. "The Xiao family is a martial arts family; do you lowly people dare to tread on their threshold? Get lost, or I'll force you to make a move!"

As he spoke, his hand was already on the hilt of the sword, and a faint fluctuation of internal energy emanated from it.

Jiang Chen exhaled a smoke ring, not looking at the sword, but at the eyes of the tall, thin man.

"What if I insist on going in?"